Christmas Lights on the Mills Mansion
by queerfemme
Summary: In which Emma and Henry attempt to surprise Regina with a little holiday cheer. Swan Queen, Swan-Mills family one-shot. Mostly fluff, but involves Regina waking up adorably but heart-breakingly scared and panicky. Also attempts to resolve that god-awful WHY DID NO ONE INVITE HER TO DINNER problem with the fall season finale.


Regina Mills woke with a start. There had been an enormous crash, followed by a stifled yelp and a heavy thud. Had it been part of a dream?

She groggily lifted her head and reached over to her right, grappling in the dark for the body of her lover. When her sleep-weary hand encountered nothing but thin air and silken sheets folded back on an empty blanket, she sat bolt upright. Had she dreamed the past few months of bliss, the only few months of complete happiness she had ever felt, starting with a phone call from the blonde on the day she returned from Fairy Tale Land, straining to be heard in a crowded restaurant?

_"Regina?" the voice had sounded. "Henry and I thought you might be hungry. We left a little hastily but uh... you wanna join us? ... I _know_ you're perfectly capable of spending an evening - ugh, look Regina, our kid misses you. Hell, I do, too. I haven't had nearly enough time to wind you up lately, and anyway, there's no point celebrating without - without the whole family... Too damn bad for everyone else! I fought giants and ogres and zombie people this week, I think I can sort out anyone who gives you a problem. Now get over here, the kid's talking up a storm about how your prim and proper and fucking sexy ass actually played whack-a-mole while I was gone... No, I'm not contaminating his vocabulary, he's in the bathroom. Now are you coming or what?"_

Had it all been a dream?

No, the blonde's scent of cinnamon, whiskey, and sex lingered too strongly on her trembling fingers. So where was she?

Sleepiness gone from her eyes, Regina tossed off her covers and wrapped a silk bathrobe around her naked body, which offered her more proof that she hadn't dreamed the past few months with the blonde: she only slept naked when they fell asleep, spent, blissful, and sated, in each others' arms. So where the hell was she?

Another crash. Regina gasped, jumped, and rushed into Henry's room. Also gone.

True panic flaring up now, the bewildered and barefooted woman made her way down the stairs to what she thought was the source of the noise: the front porch.

Magically bursting the doors open and preparing to do her worst to whomever had taken her son and her lover, Regina was greeted with a gust of cold wind, a strong draft of snow, and two surprised gasps.

She found herself gazing at a small boy in an oversized Santa hat squatting over a grown woman whose blonde hair was partially covered by a blue winter hat with a pom-pom on top, and whose entire body, it seemed, was tangled in an impossible combination of Christmas lights and tinsel.

"Ms. Swan!" The implicated woman's eyes mirrored the boy's as they stared up at the former mayor, caught. A low "uh oh" escaped both their mouths.

"It is _three o'clock in the morning_! What on _earth_ do you think you're doing?"

"Just spreading some holiday cheer, Regina. No need to break down the door and whip out the formalities!" The blonde, still wrapped up in lights on the snowy ground, was miming shock and offense at Regina's intrusion, but the twinkling in her eyes was mirrored, she knew, by her Queen's.

"At this time of night?" her lover asked, exasperated.

"Emma works all day, Mom, and we couldn't do it at a regular time because we wanted it to be a surprise for you!" Henry, not yet adept at reading Regina's amusement, felt the need for a puppy-eyed intervention. Pride swelled in Emma's chest.

Regina's lips curved to match the smile in her eyes, and she squatted next to Henry to ruffle her son's hair and tweak his chin.

"And a very sweet idea that was, darling." She glanced at Emma, who was trying to be subtle about untangling herself from all those lights and tinsel. She looked her up and down appraisingly, and Emma smirked as her lover's eyebrow cocked. "I'm not even going to ask how you got into this... position... _Sheriff_ Swan," she said, as sensually as she could without eliciting the "aw, _Moms_!" response from their 10-year-old. Hard as they were trying to teach him that affection, including sexual affection, was a beautiful thing when consensual, he still struggled with "grown-ups' sexy talk."

Emma reddened, fully taking in her double-entendre, and, glancing at Henry, muttered something about "the kid," "distracting," and "slippery." Regina nodded, amused, as though Emma had said something intelligible and illuminating. She winked at Henry as he loyally stifled a giggle.

"And would my two clumsy miscreants like help completing their 3 am holiday adventure?"

"No! We got this! And you're not even dressed!" Emma ogled her lover's hardened nipples, accentuated by the thinness of her robe. Regina tried to hold down the arousal that shot through her, that always enflamed her body when Emma's eyes touched her curves.

"It's supposed to be a surprise, Mom!"

Regina glanced around at the lights they had already hung, admitting despite herself that, when complete, it would truly look beautiful and reflect rather stunningly off of the falling snow.

She smiled deeply, sliding her hands across Emma's body, coaxing the lights and tinsel off of her waist, detangling her legs, rapidly freezing hands lingering on magically warm inner thighs.

"Well then, I suppose I'll go make my two little elves hot cocoa and stand by with the first aid kit."

Henry laughed deeply as Emma scowled and stuck out her tongue (which only made Henry laugh harder, of course), and Regina reveled in the sound and in the playfulness of her lover's gesture.

Kissing her family lightly, she slipped inside, warming her freezing bare feet on the carpet, as she listened to the joyful banter on the other side of the door. "Don't fall this time, Emma! You'll wake the whole neighborhood!"

"Watch it, kid, or I'll stick antlers on you and you can stay out here as a Rudolph decoration. Or is he actually someone else I haven't met yet? Your mom still hasn't given me a clear answer about whether Santa Clause is real, you know."

Regina laughed to herself as she heard Henry's giggle and the noisy kiss her lover was placing on his cheek. Though ecstatic, she felt a tear roll down her still-cold face. For a moment she wondered why she was crying, and then she realized: this was her first happy holiday experience with a family. Her family. Ever.

Smiling, she glided into the kitchen to make all three of them hot cocoa. It was going to be a beautiful day.


End file.
